Leslie Lok is an assistant professor at Cornell University Department of Architecture and directs the Rural-Urban Building Innovation Lab. By integrating digital construction methods with non-standardized and local material resources, her work customizes visualization, design, and fabrication workflows for human-machine interaction. Her recent research centers on the use of mixed reality technologies to facilitate novel construction methods.
Lok is also a co-founder at HANNAH, a design practice that focuses on architectural explorations grounded in material expression, digital fabrication, and innovative construction techniques to advance building practices. The studio’s work aims to mine the tension between machine means and architectural ends. HANNAH is the recipient of the Architectural League Prize, named Best New Practices by Archdaily and Next Progressives by Architect Magazine, and a winner of the Folly/Function Competition. Lok’s projects and research have been internationally published in ACADIA, Advances in Architectural Geometry, FABRICATE, and the Media Architecture Biennale; as well as featured in Architectural Record, a+u, the New York Times, Dwell, Architect Magazine, and others. HANNAH’s current project, House of Cores, is the first multi-story concrete 3D printed building in the U.S.; a recent project, Ashen Cabin, which experimented with concrete 3D printing and robotic wood fabrication at the building scale, has been featured in various book publications, including the Environmental Design Sourcebook: Innovative Ideas for a Sustainable Built Environment and Ecological Buildings - New Strategies for Sustainable Architecture. Her contributions were exhibited at the Total Museum of Contemporary Art in South Korea, International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, Art OMI, the Momentary, and Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen. Lok received her Master of Architecture at MIT.
